Laogai Research Foundation executive director Harry Wu made a visit to the Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC, to congratulate his friend Congressman Frank Wolf on the release of his new book, Prisoner of Conscience.  Harry met Rep. Wolf across the street from the Heritage Foundation, and the two "prisoners of conscience" walked in together for the press conference on the book release.

To commemorate 6o years of refugee protection for the upcoming U.N. Refugee Congress, the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) interviewed refugees, including Harry Wu, in the short film Six Voices for Six Decades. The conference, Aug. 3-4, brings together refugees from across the U.S., many of whom have fled persecution and unspeakable atrocities, to share their stories and discuss how to improve the protection and lives of refugees across the globe.
 

May 16, 2011 – Washington, DC
On May 13th, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights held a hearing on “China’s Latest Crackdown on Dissent.” The hearing was chaired by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), and Representatives Donald Payne (D-NJ) and Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE) also delivered opening statements. Harry Wu, Executive Director of the Laogai Research Foundation, was one of several witnesses; other witnesses included Chinese democracy activist Wei Jingsheng, Jing Zhang (Director at All Girls Allowed), Steven Mosher (President of the Population Research Institute), Philem Kine (Asia Researcher at Human Rights Watch), and Andrea Warden (Professor of Law at American University).
 

In his opening statement, Rep. Smith drew attention to the increasingly harsh crackdown China is waging against activists, human rights lawyers, and bloggers. He also expressed outrage at the growing oppression of religious groups and coercion of mothers under the one child policy. Rep. Payne echoed these calls, noting that there has been a substantial rise in social unrest, and that “the Chinese cannot enforce stability at the expense of human rights.” Rep. Fortenberry emphasized that the U.S., a nation founded on principles of freedom of speech and religion, must stand up to China, regardless of the country’s importance to U.S. economic interests and tell China that, “global trade is inseparable from global responsibility.”
 

Harry Wu’s testimony focused on China’s continual repression of its people, noting that since the Communist Party rose to power in 1949, “by depriving its people of basic rights and freedoms and keeping its people in the dark and in a constant state of fear, the CCP has managed to maintain its sovereignty.” He condemned the total neglect of the law in the government’s suppression of dissidents like Liu Xiaobo, Ai Weiwei, Tan Zuoren, and Liu Xianbin who have been disappeared or imprisoned for expressing their ideas on the internet. Mr. Wu also explained that through extrajudicial means, the CCP has illegally detained not only common people, but even Communist Party cadres through a system called ‘double regulation’, in which suspects are held in detention prior to formal arrest and required to make a confession outside of court.

May 12, 2011 -  Washington, DC- On May 11th,  the 17th annual commemoration of Vietnam Human Rights Day took place on Capitol Hill, highlighting that the fight for human rights in Vietnam is still far from over. The event was sponsored by Senators John Cornyn, Barbara Boxer, Scott Brown, Richard Lugar, and several Congressmen including Frank Wolf and Chris Smith. The event kicked off with the singing of the U.S. and Vietnamese national anthems, as well as a moment of silence for the victims of human rights abuse.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Thieu Do noted that the recent detention of over 20 political activists by Vietnam’s communist government and the onset of China’s worst crackdown in two decades shows just how much these communist regimes fear real democracy. Rep. Frank Wolf stressed that despite the ongoing call for human rights in Vietnam, conditions are not improving, but are in fact worsening. He referred to the U.S. State Department 2010 Vietnam Human Rights Report, which detailed the deteriorating situation, and called on Vietnamese people inside and outside Vietnam to take a stronger stand- both at the grassroots level, and in Congress.

Representatives of numerous human rights organizations made statements, including Laogai Research Foundation’s executive director, Harry Wu. “Looking back at history,” he said, “we can see clearly that the Soviet Union was destined to collapse…who knows about another 17 years from now? Hopefully communism will not exist.” He expressed his sympathy for Vietnam’s victims and his support for the defenders of human rights both inside and outside Vietnam. He shared his hopes that some day people who have fled the oppression of communist regimes will some day be able to return to their home countries and be free.

LRF is currently attending the Taiwan International Book Exhibition at the Taipei World Trade Center to launch our newest publication, Strive for Freedom-Selected Writings of Liu Xiaobo. This book is a collection of essays that Liu submitted to LRF's China Observer (观察) website between 2002 and 2008. For more on the book exhibition and LRF's participation, please see our press release and this article from Focus Taiwan.

For those who couldn't make it to the book exhibition, we wanted to share these photos with you:

LRF's booth at the exhibition.  (More photos after the jump!)

 On January 18, Rep. Chris Smith, chair of the House Human Rights Subcommittee and Executive Committee Member of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC) and Rep. Frank Wolf, Co-Chair of the TLHRC, held a press conference to heighten attention to China’s human rights concerns. The conference was just one of many human rights events planned to coincide with the arrival of Chinese Premier Hu Jintao to Washington. Harry Wu, Laogai Research Foundation’s Executive Director and Laogai survivor, joined a panel of outspoken Chinese human rights activists, family members of dissidents, and Representatives Smith and Wolf in calling for President Obama to speak out against China’s human rights abuses- not only in private discussions with Hu, but also to the public media and international community.

In his remarks, Mr. Wu drew attention to the atrocities resulting from China’s One-Child Policy, noting that 22% of the world’s population is not free to make their own reproductive decisions. This cry was echoed by fellow panelists and defenders of women’s rights, Reggie Littlejohn, President of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers and Chai Ling, President of All Girls Allowed, who stressed that forced abortion and forced sterilization are “crimes against humanity.” Mr. Wu also drew parallels between the gulags of the Holocaust and China’s Laogai, or forced labor camps, which still exist today, and which, despite international regulations, continue to find ways to export prisoner-made goods. He cited as evidence, the recent discovery that a Canadian company, Inland Screw Piling, had imported Laogai-made products.

Laogai Research Foundation (LRF) executive director Harry Wu and LRF Washington, DC director Nicole Kempton participated in this year's Independent Media in Exile Conference organized by the World Press Freedom Committee.  Wu spoke during the conference's opening reception (see his speech reprinted below) and Kempton presented Friday on LRF's Laogai Archives, a growing online collection of documents, photographs, and videos which uncover currently censored information by the Chinese government. The Laogai Archives also includes LRF's prison database, an extensive listing of the prisons and reeducation through labor camps that makeup China's Laogai.

Read more about the conference and Harry Wu's speech from the World Press Committee's "Interesting Times":

Harry Wu knows all about the consequences of defying a dictatorial regime. After he had the temerity to criticize the Communist Party, he was sent to the Laogai, the Chinese gulag, for 19 horrendous years.

His jailers were able to break many things, but never his will to survive and prevail. He eventually was forced into exiled in 1985 and arrived in the United States "with 45 dollars in my pocket," he says.

He quickly started working on showing the world the horrors of the Laogai. But not until the age of the Internet did he really become a true thorn on the side of the Beijing bosses.

He founded the Laogai Research Foundation, perhaps the world's most comprehensive archive of original documents from the darkest years of the Chinese gulag.  (More after the jump)

In this episode of "Harry's Lunchbox," a recurring feature in which Laogai survivor Harry Wu talks about life in the Laogai and under communism, Harry describes being forced to criticize a fellow prisoner - an experience he will never forget. 

In this episode of "Harry's Lunchbox," a recurring feature in which Laogai survivor Harry Wu talks about life in the Laogai and under communism, Harry describes the many ways he foraged in the prison camp to survive starvation.

In this episode of "Harry's Lunchbox," a recurring feature in which Laogai survivor Harry Wu talks about life in the Laogai and under communism, Harry reveals how he clandestinely captured and cooked frogs in order to survive.